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As autumn begins to take up the space left behind by a slowly retreating summer, the fruits of the season are ready for harvest. Today I collected Feijoas from a friend’s orchard. They lie under the trees in rich abundance, their gorgeous scent stimulating memories of previous year’s ingestion.
It has been a pleasant week; lots of sunshine after a heavy and extended, but desperately needed, rain. All of a sudden, the possibility of planting out the many inhabitants of my shade house became a reality. Along with planting out comes the usual removal of plants which have positioned themselves in the ‘wrong’ place. As the primary designer (or so I tell myself) I follow my plan. As Mother Nature is cleverer than me She sometimes positions plants with such superb skill I can only marvel. Other times She likes to play a practical joke! I am fortunate in having kind friends who are happy to ‘rehome’ plants that are in overabundance.
There are the odd few, however, whose reputations have gone before them and I cannot, in good conscience, give them away. I’ve just spent some time in my veggie garden removing Oxalis bulbs, one of my least enjoyed immigrants. It is such a large family and some are terribly well-behaved whilst others are nothing short of hooligans who take over and create hours of weeding work. As I squat digging them out with my trusty Niwashi I wonder what lesson I’m learning from these vigourous/annoying garden overstayers. I keep in mind they were invited here by my gardening ancestors; perhaps it’s unfair to label them so negatively. A little more tolerance and I can see how, in their roundabout way, they keep bringing me back to the veggie garden; my hands returning to the soil, keeping the connection.
Feelings of peace exchange places with annoyance. A nod of thanks to Oxalis and I go back to the house and wash up ready to reward myself for a good days work with the delightful scent and taste of Feijoas.